I'm trying to find this short story I read in elementary school...?

Question

It's about a boy and his grandfather. His grandfather makes a shirt of fantasic fabric for the boy, but the boy rips it. The grandfather then makes a tie from the remainder of the fabric, but that too gets torn. The grandfather then makes a button, which the boy loses. The boy begs and begs his grandfather to make something else from the fabric, but the grandfather merely states that one cannot make something from nothing.

Answer 1

This is an old folktale, Jewish, I think. There are more than one editions.

There is one called Joseph Had A Little Overcoat by Simms Taback that won the Caldecott a few years ago. Hard to say what version you read, though.

Something From Nothing by Phoebe Gilman: When Joseph was a baby, his grandfather made him a shimmering blue blanket adorned with the moon and stars. As the boy grows and the blanket wears out, the old tailor recycles it, in succession fashioning a jacket, a vest, a tie and, finally, a cloth-covered button. But when Joseph loses the button, even his grandfather cannot make something from nothing.